Today, more than 300 startups are founded in Switzerland every year – four times more than 15 years ago (according to Startup Radar report). The canton of Zurich is the center of innovations and hosts around one third of the startups but they exist in all 26 cantons. The medical technology, engineering, electrical and metal (MEM) industries as well as energy and cleantech are pioneering but quite strong representation has also biotech and finance. The growth of the startups is rather slow in comparison to the other European countries but it’s something the local founders work on.
There are not only Swiss initiatives present on the market. There are more and more regulations allowing foreign startups to come to Switzerland and set up their business here. They can benefit from great knowledge, coaching, financial support, mentoring, developing market and friendly startup infrastructure and network. Switzerland opens up its’ door to other countries but select the business ideas with utmost care before accepting them, for instance, to local accelerator.
When it comes to pure Venture Capital itself, Switzerland is relatively small country but it has quite serious players in this area. There is enormous amount of capital available but it’s spent carefully and rationally considered rather than invested in all possible initiatives. Here you can find a list of most interesting venture capital representatives (corporate/private) as well as local accelerators actively acting on Swiss market. Some of them are not well known but I dig deep into the market to find few small and not ‘shouting out’ but truly successful and having outstanding mission to follow.
Most recognised accelerators and VCs in Switzerland:
F10 Incubator & Accelerator
F10 supports and guides Startups in transforming their initial ideas into successful companies while stimulating worldwide collaboration with international finance organizations. The accelerator already has a proven track record of innovation, acceleration, and product creation mainly for financial services. They are greatly supported by SIX, the Swiss stock exchange and other leading financial institutions. Last year they expanded their programs globally and organise hackathons not only in Zurich but also in Vienna and Singapore. F10 split their program into 3 rounds: 1. Idea To Prototype, 2. Prototype To Product, 3. Product To Market where the last one is already pretty advanced Proof of Concept level and active work startups with particular institutions.
Kickstart Accelerator
Kickstart Accelerator bridges the gap between startups, corporates, cities, foundations and universities to accelerate deep tech innovation. They accept startups to one of the following verticals:
EDTECH & LEARNING
FINTECH & CRYPTO
FOOD & RETAIL TECH
SMART CITIES & INFRASTRUCTURE
It’s open to national and international startups that are developing and applying deep technologies, science and engineering driven technologies such as AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Robotics etc. During the program, the selected entrepreneurs live and work in Zurich, usually for 6 weeks, to implement collaborative projects with the partners and scaling their business. They receive support from mentors and experts out of the Swiss innovation ecosystem, get in touch with investors and take part in collaboration workshops. Additionally, each startup receives up to CHF 10’000 of program stipends. Kickstart takes no equity and charges no fees.
Mass Challenge
Quite young, because founded only in 2016, MassChallenge Switzerland has quickly become a leading driver of innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe by connecting startups with the experts and resources they need to grow. The program lasts from February (application acceptance) through June – September, when the actual acceleration program is happening, ending in October with Masschallenge Switzerland Awards Ceremony.
Venture Lab
It’s so called World-class STARTUPS. Swiss made. Venturelab started with this mission in 2004. Since then they have reviewed tens of thousands of business ideas and have trained thousands of startups. Great success is that Last year 69 Venturelab alumni made it to the TOP 100 Swiss startups. It can really say about professionalism, experience and startup market knowledge of the Venture Lab Leaders.
SICTIC
The Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC) is a non-profit association established in 2014 that connects smart money investors to Swiss early-stage tech startups. SICTIC organizes the deal flow and matchmaking of startups and investors, and facilitates the process until the investment round closes, with an aim to grow the quantity and quality of local seed stage investments. However, SICTIC does not invest itself nor does it hold shares in startups. It’s not an accelerator but great community that connects startups with investors. It provides regular networking platform for upfront selected startups and SICTIC members who are looking for investment opportunities.
Go Beyond Investing
It’s well recognised angel investing platform that connect startups which are looking for funds with investors that are members of the network. They’ve facilitated already around 96 startup fundraising deals. Founders have access to global investors and experienced mentors and deal leaders that are assigned to every single startup. Additionally, GBI provides great education support via regular webinars, training onsite sessions and new initiatives like participating in fund raising or creating a new fund focused on particular market like their recent initiative Rising Tide Europe 3rd edition that involve female investors to learn angel investing via investing into startups which has at least female co-founder. Their selected portfolio consist of: Flyability, Arktis Radiation Detectors Ltd, Cellestia Biotech AG.
Swisscom Ventures
Swisscom Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Switzerland’s leading telecom operator, invests in growth companies with emerging business models and technologies that are relevant to Swisscom’s core business. More precisely, the firm focuses on fintech, software, cloud computing, analytics, communications, entertainment, Big Data, the Internet-of-Things, telecommunications and security. Last year, Swisscom launched a CHF 10 million fintech investment fund. The firm’s fintech portfolio includes cloud-based business software Bexio and invoice financing platform Advanon, among others. Just this days Swisscom closed an investment into Netguardian. Swisscom supports internal entrepreneurial initiatives. This year, employee of Swisscom, won first prize of Corporate Venture Startup Summit. He invented kickbox which you can just grab and learn about basic tools that help to start a new venture.
Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a European VC entity (set up in 1996) with a headquarter in Geneva and additional offices in London and San Francisco. The transformative companies they’re building, include: Adyen, Aurora, Bird, Deliveroo, Datadog, Dropbox, Elastic, Farfetch, Funding Circle, King, Sonos, Squarespace, Supercell, Zuora and many others. They are growing globally, having already companies they’ve worked with in 39 different countries. Most recent funds: early-stage fund (Index Ventures 9) & growth fund (Index Growth 4).
Lakestar
Lakestar focuses mainly and invests in technology and digital companies. With a presence in Berlin, London and Zurich, Lakestar makes early and growth stage investments in tech-enabled businesses predominantly in Europe and the US driven by “exceptional” entrepreneurs.
Lakestar’s fintech portfolio includes, airbnb, Revolut, spotify, ShapeShift. They have ofices in Zurich, Berlin, London, New York and Hong Kong.
Venture Kick
Venture Kick was launched in 2007 with the vision to double the number of spin-offs at Swiss universities, to accelerate the time-to-market and to raise the attractiveness of these young companies to professional investors and industry partners. Selected members from a jury pool with more than 150 leading startup experts in Switzerland evaluate 20 startup projects of different stages every month on three sessions. The funding starts before company incorporation and goes up to CHF 130.000 per project in 3 stages, over an approximately 9 months period. They have in scope: Web 2.0, Media, E-Commerce, Enterprise, Software, Mobile, Gaming, Medtech, Cleantech, Biotech.
Mountain Partners
The company manages more than 130 investments in the sectors of E-Commerce & Services, Technology & Security, Digital Payment & Fintech.
With a global network of international hubs, strategically located in emerging-market regions (Latin America, Middle East, Southeast Asia), Mountain Partners supports and finances companies in the early incubation phase, internationalizes proven business models, provides active local management and finally brings them to public markets.
Redalpine
Redalpine is an European seed and early-stage venture investor. They invest in disruptive technologies with focus on highly scalable ICT and Health Tech models. Redalpine’s portfolio includes Zenjob, LemonOne, Finiata, Lunaphore, Bexio and many more.Stage: Early Stage, Intermediate Stage, Later Stage,Investiere
Investiere
Investiere was founded in 2010 by Lukas Weber and Steffen Wagner. Now, it’s backed by 68 business angels as well as the local Zürcher Kantonalbank that took a minority stake in investiere in Summer 2016. Investiere is an online investment platform for entrepreneurs, VC and all other individuals interested in investing in prospective founders. The platform offers accredited private and institutional investors direct and professional access to selected startup investments, and seeks to open up the asset class venture capital to a wider audience. So far, Investiere has grown in members and built a diversified portfolio across the different sectors that compose the Swiss innovation landscape. In fintech, Investiere has invested in Qumram, a cybersecurity startup serving heavily regulated industries including banking, insurance, healthcare and government, and Sherpany, a web-based e-voting and investor relations platform.
At the end, I’ll add one more which has been set up this year but seems to have a great potential to take a great piece on the market. CVVC focuses on and supports exclusively the blockchain founders. CVVC – is a next generation investment company, where cutting-edge blockchain technology meets traditional venture capital. They invest in all stages of blockchain development, from incubation to pre-ICO and post-ICO. CVVC is extremely active in the market and gives a lot of opportunities to engage and network with like minded people. They organise CV competition. It’s the opportunity for blockchain startups to win a cash prize of $100K. Also, twice a year, the CV SUMMIT takes place and gather blockchain community to discuss recent market happenings.
